


heart in tandem

by coalitiongirl_ficlets (coalitiongirl)



Series: Swan Hood and the Evil Queen [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4594806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl_ficlets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just a courtroom wedding for practical reasons. They aren't getting married. It's not a big deal. (Except it kind of is. You don't spend this long fighting for each other without everything meaning too much.)</p><p>Takes place in the future of the Swan Hood and the Evil Queen universe, but should be readable without context!</p>
            </blockquote>





	heart in tandem

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this on twitter and then i wrote it on tumblr and it got too long so it's here now, whoops. i'm going to go edit the chapter and should post that soon!

It’s really, really not a big deal, okay. Regina isn’t going to get married again, Emma knows that, and they’re perfectly content without something so self-indulgent, right? They have Henry and they’re finally together and what else do they really need? Some big party celebrating themselves? Nah.

At least, that’s what Emma tells herself. And Regina never even brings up the subject, not until one evening at dinner a year into their time in Storybrooke on a night when Henry is out with friends. And Regina’s fiddling nervously with a ring on her finger–

(She wears it on her ring finger and they’ve never bothered talking about what it means. Emma had gotten it for her, paid for it with actual money instead of stealing it from the jewelry store, and she’d come home and shaken Regina’s hand instead of kissing it and suddenly, there’d been a ring on her finger. Regina had rolled her eyes and smiled with them and then later that night, Emma had found a ring of her own on her night table. She hadn’t known when Regina had gotten it. Maybe she’d called in a favor. Maybe she’d had it all along.)

–And Regina’s stabbing her fork into her food like she’s anxious about something, and then she launches into a speech about tax benefits and guardianship that Emma doesn’t quite follow. Regina doesn’t pause her rambling until the end and Emma watches, bemused, until Regina lets out a breath and says, “So I think we can get married in the courthouse next Sunday. Maybe Snow and Zelena can be our witnesses.” 

And Emma just stares because... _what_? “Should I...should I get a dress?” she says dumbly.

Regina stabs her chicken a little harder and says, “Either way,” so airily that Emma doesn’t know what she’s thinking. And that’s settled. They don’t even bother telling Henry. It’s not a big deal.

Emma buys a dress and stuffs it under the bed, folds it as best as she can to avoid creases and hides it where she knows Regina rarely checks. (Regina purchases a dress and slips it into a garment bag at the back of the closet and never says a word to Emma.)

On the afternoon when they’re due to go down to the courthouse, Emma and Regina wear casual jeans and slacks, dress in cotton and don’t even bother checking on their dresses. They take the car to the courthouse and make halfhearted jokes about their wedding because they don’t  _care,_ it’s silly and it doesn’t mean anything.

Except that they’d asked Snow and Zelena to stand with them, and both women have considerably different plans than they do.

Henry meets them at the door in a suit, grinning as he grabs their hands and pulls them inside. “Oh, no,” Regina says softly, her eyes suddenly gleaming. The courthouse is wreathed in flowers and gauzy curtains and  _everyone’s_ there, their friends and family and the townspeople all sitting in the makeshift wedding hall that they’ve transformed the courtroom into.

“What, who did you think was going to stop us?” Zelena says derisively. “King George?  _You_? I’m always here to humiliate my baby sister.” Snow nudges her and Emma and Regina are both still standing in the doorway, stunned.

Milah grabs Regina’s hand and Mulan grabs Emma’s and they’re both tugged into side rooms on opposite ends of the hall. And Emma enters the room and there’s the dress hanging against the wall, the dress she hadn’t planned on wearing because they don’t do weddings.

When she comes out, it’s to Regina resplendent in white, and they both gape at each other’s dresses and  _oh, fuck,_ Emma’s crying. Oh god, she’s not supposed to be emotional about this. Tears have been sliding down Regina’s cheeks since before she’d even left the room, and now she’s shiny-eyed and weepy and they deserve this, don’t they? It’s been a lifetime of fighting and fighting for their happiness together and this feels  _earned,_ more than anything that might have come before.

Henry takes their arms, one per mother, and walks them down what isn’t quite an aisle to Lancelot. And Emma sees all of it through blurred eyes, this community that is hers, this family that is hers. Henry releases them and their hands land in each other’s and they’re both still wet-cheeked with gleaming eyes but they aren’t crying anymore.

They make up vows on the spot and they’re very simple. Emma and Regina are both private people, unwilling to air their feelings for the whole town to see. But there are words between words, loaded pauses and silences where they both  _understand_ and nothing more needs to be said. They've always known each other too well for grand declarations to mean more than what's left unspoken.

Lancelot performs the rest of the ceremony and Emma and Regina kiss and exhale, heart in tandem as it beats as one again.


End file.
